The purpose of this page is to provide additional hints & tips over and above those in the on screen help to get the most out of your SST SwingTrader. This will be added to over time. New additions will be made at the top of the page.

Symbols with Data Issues (Updated 5th Dec 08)
MER (US stock - Merryll Lynch) has a problem in that SwingTrader is being fed another company's data completely. I am not sure why this is happening but do not use MER in your watch list.

If ever you are unsure about data go to Yahoo symbol lookup and check the "Historic Data" link. Sometimes a stock has ceased trading or been bought out or the symbol has changed. Yahoo tend to indicate these things on their website.

I have not had any reports of other individual symbols with long term data issues recently. I believe Yahoo have rectified a bug which has improved things for US stocks. There is an occasional issue with a symbol that lasts a day or two but this is not uncommon with many data suppliers, particularly free ones.

New symbol rejected - When adding a new symbol to a watch list you will sometimes be told that the symbol is unacceptable and SwingTrader will automatically divert you to the Yahoo Finance website. The reason for this could be that the symbol is incorrect or that there is insufficient historic data for SwingTrader to be able to back test, evaluate, optimise and trade. You can check the historic data at the Yahoo site as follows:

On the Symbol Lookup page enter the symbol, select "Type" and "Market" and click Look Up. If the symbol is correct then at the next page you can click on the symbol (hyperlink) to get more detail. You may well see the latest day data here but the important thing is to click the "Historic Prices" link on the left of the page, towards the top. Look for the latest date of data which should be the most recent trading day for that market. If there is no data leading right up to the most recent day it is likely to be because the company has ceased trading or been taken over. In total you need approximately 3 months data for SwingTrader to work.

FTSE 350 stocks - I have just had a report from a SwingTrader user who is optimising the entire FTSE 350 stocks - it is amazing how many symbols which are not in my watch list (on this site) optimise well with great back test results. Given time I will check these out and increase the UK watch list. I am sure the same could be said of the already large US watch list.

Prospective Trades to Indicate Trend
It is fair to say that when the vast majority of prospective trades show short then there is a likelihood that the market as a whole will be in a down trend. Conversely if the vast majority of prospective trades show long then the market as a whole may well be in an up trend. This can be used as an overall trend indicator to help you in your trading decisions. One word of warning: SwingTrader takes a couple of days to detect a change in trend (prices need to cross the relevant optimised MA) so a turning market is more difficult to identify. There will probably be a point when there is a much more even mix of short and long and that is an indication that there is no clear market direction. Some traders will even go so far as to stay out the market when there is no clear overall direction.

Here is an idea I have not yet proven but food for thought: How about optimising a watch list of all FTSE 100 stocks (whether they are green, amber or red) then optimise the FTSE 100 Index as well. When you run “Check for Trades” if the vast majority of stocks AND the index show short then go short on the Index (using the index prospective trade entry if possible). When the vast majority and the Index show long then go long on the index. When there is a more even mix of short & long then stay out the market. Interesting, I have not tested it with real money but it sounds pretty good to me and could potentially be done with any market/ Index.